La démocratie

The Afrobarometer provides some answers. The Afrobarometer is a pioneering effort to systematically measure public opinion in a dozen African countries using survey research methods. This brochure summarizes 11 key findings from Round 1 surveys, completed in mid-2001.

Three years ago, Kenya held it’s third multiparty election since 1992. To the delight of many, it finally led to a long awaited political transition, bringing an end to the long reign of Daniel Arap Moi and the even longer rule of his KANU political party. In a first Afrobarometer survey in Kenya, conducted in August-September 2003, just eight months after the new government of Mwai Kibaki and the NARC Rainbow Coalition took office, we found widespread euphoria and high hopes for the country’s future.

Zimbabweans exhibit solid support for democracy but never seem to get enough of it. This is according to survey results from Afrobarometer Round 3.

A perennial set of questions in the Afrobarometer series relates to democracy, the demand for it, its supply, and support for democratic institutions. Round 3 of the survey repeated this set of issues and, given the existence now of three observations over time (1999, 2004 and 2005), trends and patterns are beginning to emerge.

But more than one-third of citizens are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in Sierra Leone.

A little more than a decade since the country returned to democratic rule, large majorities of Sierra Leoneans reject non-democratic systems of government and prefer to choose their political leaders through open elections.

Most Ugandans believe that officials receive preferential treatment under the law, a recent Afrobarometer survey in Uganda reveals.

A majority of citizens say that they – and their president – must obey the law, as well as pay taxes and abide by court decisions. But they cite significant obstacles to accessing court services, including long delays, complex processes, high costs, and difficulty in obtaining legal counsel.

Since its transition to electoral democracy in 1993, Lesotho has experienced a series of upheavals related to the electoral process. Election results were vehemently contested in 1998, when the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) won all but one of the country’s constituencies under a first-past-the-post electoral system, and a military intervention by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was required to restore order.

Women are mostly marginalised in African political processes, but they have one key area of equality with their menfolk, and that is in voting: The ballot does not discriminate, even if the results of the balloting frequently do not meet the expectations of the voter.

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Burkina Faso as revealed during one Afrobarometer survey conducted between October 6 and 21, 2008 (N=1200). A sample of this size yields a margin of error of +/- 3 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts that follow capture perceptions of:

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Benin as revealed over the course of two Afrobarometer surveys conducted between 2005 and 2008 (April-May 2005, N=1198; June-July 2008, N=1200).

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Liberia as revealed during one Afrobarometer survey conducted in December 2008 (N=1200). A sample of this size yields a margin of error of +/- 3 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts that follow capture perceptions of:

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Cape Verde as revealed over the course of three Afrobarometer surveys conducted between 2002 and 2008 (June 2002, N=1268; Mar.-April 2005, N=1256; May 2008, N=1266). Samples of this size yield a margin of error of +/- 3 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts thatfollow capture perceptions of:

Face-to-face interviews constitute a social interaction between interviewer and respondent, yet research employing African survey data typically fails to account for the effect of shared ethnicity on survey responses. We find that respondents give systematically different answers to coethnic and non-coethnic interviewers across surveys in 14 African countries, but with significant variation in the degree of bias across question types and countries, with the largest effects for explicitly ethnic questions and in countries where ethnicity is salient.

How do individual Africans view competitive elections? How do they behave at election time? What are the implications of new forms of popular participation for citizenship and democracy? Drawing on a decade of research from the cross-national Afrobarometer project, the authors of this seminal collection explore the emerging role of mass politics in Africa's fledgling democracies.

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Kenya as revealed over the course of three Afrobarometer surveys conducted between 2003 and 2008 (Aug.-Sept. 2003, N=2398; Sep. 2005, N=1278; Oct.-Nov. 2008, N=1104). Samples of this size yield a margin of error of +/- 2 to 3 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts that follow capture perceptions of:

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in South Africa as revealed over the course of five Afrobarometer surveys conducted between 2000 and 2008 (July-Aug. 2000, N=2200; Sept.-Oct. 2002, N=2400; Oct.-Nov. 2004, N=2400; Feb. 2006, N=2400; Oct.-Nov. 2008, N=2400). Samples of this size yield a margin of error of +/- 2 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts that follow capture perceptions of:

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Lesotho as revealed over the course of four Afrobarometer surveys conducted between 1999 and 2008 (Mar.-June 1999, N=1177; Feb.-April 2003, N=1200; July-Aug. 2005, N=1161; Oct.-Nov. 2008, N=1200). Samples of this size yield a margin of error of +/- 3 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts that follow capture perceptions of:

Only about one-third of Basotho are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country, the 2014 Afrobarometer survey reveals.Almost half of respondents in the recent survey say Lesotho is “a democracy with major problems” or “not a democracy at all.” These findings indicate significantly more negative public perceptions of Lesotho’s democracy than in 2012.

This document provides a summary of popular attitudes regarding the demand for and supply of democracy in Malawi as revealed over the course of four Afrobarometer surveys conducted between 1999 and 2008 (Nov.-Dec. 1999, N=1208; Apr.-May 2003, N=1200; June-July 2005, N=1200; October 2008, N=1200). Samples of this size yield a margin of error of +/- 3 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The charts that follow capture perceptions of: